


House Guest

by RonnokArchmage



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-29
Updated: 2016-02-29
Packaged: 2018-05-23 21:37:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,323
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6130873
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RonnokArchmage/pseuds/RonnokArchmage
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peridot has had a long, tiring day. Thanks to a visitor climbing in through her window, it's about to get a lot longer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	House Guest

**Author's Note:**

> Human AU Amedot fic. This isn't my first piece of writing, but its pretty much the only finished piece I have available right now. Will I continue it????? who knows.......

Peridot closed the apartment door behind her, turning the lock. It released the loud, securing click that never failed to relax her. Throwing her coat onto a chair, her bags below, she slowly made her way to the couch. Peridot flopped herself down upon it, heaving a sigh.

What a day it had been. Class, work, and shopping. Not to mention carpooling Lapis. Peridot wasn't simply tired. She was exhausted – and more than a little looking forward to some personal time with the television.

The tuckered college student rested her back, breathing deeply and slowly. The quite hum of the air heater and the city beyond the confines of her apartment lulled away her aches. She felt herself sink deeper into the couch. She usually complained that it was far too soft; now, she couldn't care less. Peridot felt herself drifting into a nap, and was more than willing to give herself the leisure time.

She would have succeeded, if not for the immense crashing noise that erupted from her kitchen.

Jumping at the sound, the tenseness gripped her muscles once more. That all too familiar wrenching, turning feeling in her gut returned as well. Peridot swallowed.

The TV remote was in her hand, wielded like a blunt, useless knife. Her grip tightened, and she readied herself the best she could. With as much determination as she could muster, she burst from around the corner, into the kitchen.

Peridot wasn’t exactly sure what she expected to see, but the sight before her now blew any other premonition of hers out of the water.

"Amethyst?" she croaked.

The short woman before her startled, dropping more of the food she was hastily shoving back into Peridot's fridge. A half-eaten apple remained clamped in her jaw – further food could be seen bulging from one of her hoodie pockets.

"Uh… fhey, feri…" Amethyst mumbled through the fruit.

"What are you doing in my fridge?" Peridot was fuming. Food was scattered across the floor, and a tray had fallen from the fridge - all thanks to the annoying girl from work stealing her food.

"Welf, ish fuffy fou foulsh ashk…" the food thief mumbled.

"Stop," spat Peridot, "I don't want to hear some stupid, made-up excuse."

She grabbed the apple from Amethyst's mouth, tossing it onto the counter. Cringing at the mess at her feet, Peridot groaned, mumbling complaints under her breath. She then bent down and began the cleaning process.  
"Help me put this away, and I won't call the cops."

The mention of the police seemed to spark some motivation in Amethyst, as she hastily began replacing her mess into the fridge. More than once, Peridot have to change her thief's placement. Amethyst didn't know it, but Peridot had a strict system – even for storing food.

By the time they were done, Peridot was even more exhausted than before, and, frankly, a little hungry herself.

Amethyst stood there, her hands deep in the now empty pockets of her hoodie. She shifted from one foot to the other, pretending to scan the room around her, while avoiding Peridot's line of sight altogether.

Crossing her arms, Peridot kept her sharp, heated eyes locked on the hungry kitchen intruder. 

"Well?" said Peridot, tongue laced with scorn.

"Well what?" muttered Amethyst. 

"Why are you stealing food from my fridge?"

"Um, well…"

"And why did you choose my apartment, of all places?"

"I didn't -"

"And how did you even get in here?"

Given up on trying to get a word in, Amethyst merely gestured weakly towards the kitchen window, noticeably open. Peridot's eyes narrowed.

"I'm on the fifth floor, Amethyst."

"Yeah, well," Amethyst shrugged, "I was on the fourth."

The two sat in silence for a moment, the room dimming as the last fleeting rays of sun drizzled down beyond the city's horizon. Amethyst continued to avoid Peridot's gaze. 

Eventually, Peridot had had enough. She rubbed the bridge of her nose under her glasses, heaving a grunt.

"Why did you want to steal food from my fridge?"

"I didn't want to," murmured Amethyst, "I just… kinda needed to."  
Peridot opened one eye, peering over her knuckles at Amethyst.

"What do you mean you needed to?"

Amethyst tugged at her long, messy hair. She mumbled something incoherent under her breath. 

Peridot was beginning to feel her annoyance building again.

"What was that?" she said, holding back the urge to grind her teeth.

"I said I don't have any food," Amethyst hissed, huddling in on herself, trying to make herself smaller than she already was.

A thick silence filled the room. Amethyst stood, staring at the floor, her hair hanging over her face. Peridot remained where she was, though her finger had moved down from her face to fiddle around each other. It was her who finally broke the stillness.

"Well," she said, doing her best to mask her legitimate concern – empathy wasn't really a common tone to hear from Peridot. "You could've just asked."

"Didn't know this was your place," Amethyst said quietly, lifting her head a bit, "or that you would even say yes."

Peridot sighed once again, then turned on her heel to make way to her pantry. She rifled through the sparsely littered shelves. Peridot herself wasn't a heavy eater, and she rarely had anyone over, so her own supplies were pretty much at a minimum.

After a moment, she pulled a box out of one of the upper shelves. Peridot turned her head back, waving the box in the air in front of her. It's rattling caught Amethyst's attention.

"You fine with macaroni?'

Amethyst's head shot up, one eyebrow soaring above the other. She looked at the box, then back to Peridot.

"I just broke into your apartment and tried to raid your fridge, and now you're just gonna feed me?"

"Would you rather I kick you out?"

Amethyst opened her mouth to say something, but the words died in her throat. Remaining silent, she twisted her hair between her fingers and mumbled a quiet thanks.

 

* * *  
Peridot plopped heap of unnaturally cheesy pasta into a bowl, and another smaller batch onto a plate. Taking the meal in her arms, she gestured her head to the table, instructing Amethyst to sit.

She slumped into the chair, kicking her feet beneath it.

Peridot went ahead and laid the food and cutlery in front of her guest before sitting down herself. Her forked picked at the noodles and she nibbled, while Amethyst took a more direct approach.

For the first few moments, Amethyst shoveled the macaroni into her mouth with particular fervor. To Peridot's relief, the food was landing nowhere but her mouth. It was quite obvious she was hungry – Peridot could only assume this meant she had been down on her luck for some time.

Half-way through scooping another fork-full through her lips, Amethyst caught Peridot's glance. She paused, bringer hey eyes down to look at her food. She slowed down on her feasting.

Another moment passed before Peridot spoke.

"So?" she said, quietly, but with an unmistakable air of assertion.

"Sho whaf?" slurred Amethyst through a maw of pasta. Speckles of cheese landed in front of her.

"So," grumbled Peridot, rolling her eyes, "Why did you feel the need steal out of my fridge?"

Amethyst swallowed her food, averting her gaze again. When she looked back, it was with a teasing expression.

"Well, I didn't know it was your fridge–"

"Amethyst," Peridot spat, "you know what I'm asking."

The spark of mischief in Amethyst's voice was gone. She put down her cheese-covered fork and held her head in her hands. Rubbing her hands down the bridge of her nose, she looked up at Peridot with a downtrodden face. Peridot only now noticed the bags under her eyes.

"My roommate was… kind of a dick," She finally said, her voice subdued and hoarse, a"He had this super friggin' high rent that I could barely top off."

"So it was money issues?" asked Peridot.

"Not just that. He was a creep." Amethyst scratched her finger against the table, looking away from Peridot once more.

Peridot put her fork down.

"He didn't do anything, did he?"

"Heh, nah. He was a wimp. I'd have had his head through the wall before he could pull anything weird!" the pep in her voice died again, "but he was my only option."

"Your only option?" said Peridot, "You didn't have anyone else you could stay with?"

Amethyst's eyes skirted along the edge of the table, her hands gripping it's edge. "… I don't know anyone else around her."

Peridot looked over to the clock on her stove. It was coming to midnight. Her brow furrowed in silent debate. She didn’t exactly have the biggest of apartments, but she couldn't just throw Amethyst out on the street after hearing this. Peridot wasn't completely apathetic.

She turned again to speak but before even a breath could escape her lips, Amethyst shoved her backwards with a screech. Bolting – or more so tumbling towards the door, Amethyst called back to Peridot, who was only just standing.

"Thanks for the foodbutIgottagobye!"

She made for the door, fumbling with the latch lock. Just as Amethyst pushed the door open and stepped out, a hand on her shoulder tugged her back.

Amethyst turned to face Peridot. She looked up at her with an awkward expression, something halfway between an apologetic glance and a worried cringe.

"Amethyst," said Peridot, her voice stern, but as soft sounding as she could manage, "If something is seriously wrong, or you don't feel safe wherever you're heading back to, I'm not just going to kick you out."

The hand on Amethyst's shoulder remained. It was intended to be comforting, but Amethyst thought it may have been intended to hold her in place – not that she would try to run again, anyway. Amethyst's gaze remained to the floor as she twiddled her fingers together.

"I wasn't gonna ask you to…" she said in a low, raspy tone, "…to like, take me in, or anything… I, uh, I just…"

Peridot kneeled down to look at Amethyst at a more equal level. She wasn’t that much taller than her, so it was Peridot who was now looking up. She removed her hand from Amethyst's shoulder, but kept her eyes locked.

"You don't need to ask," said Peridot, "If I offer."

Peridot silently reprimanded herself for speaking without thinking. She probably wasn't capable of housing someone as rowdy as Amethyst for too long – and she hadn't even considered what her landlord would have to say. Yet she had spoken regardless – Peridot wasn't sure what had spurred that within her.

Amethyst stared at Peridot, face scrunched in confusion. She glanced back to the door again, leaning from one foot to the other. She looked back at Peridot, whose own face was tense with worry.

"Look," said Amethyst, who turned from away from Peridot, "I appreciate this, I really do, but… I… I can't put my own issues on your shoulders. Besides, I mean, I barely know you."

"Well, you're Lapis's friend, right?" assured Peridot, "Besides, we've already had dinner together."

Amethyst snorted a short, enthused giggle. She finally turned to face Peridot properly. Despite the twist in her gut, or perhaps because of it, she smiled – it was gentle, but genuine.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. Why not? You're not moving in, or anything. Just… staying over, for a bit." Peridot pulled the friendliest smile she could manage. On her normally sharp, glum face it appeared almost forced, but Amethyst could tell it, like her own, was real.

"Thanks," she said, the smile now pulling her lips taut, "it means a lot."

"I'll go get you some blankets for the couch."

Peridot left in silence, eyes dotting around the room, searching for some sort of comforter. This proved more difficult that she originally anticipated; most of the blankets were either too small or layered on her own bed.

With a sigh, she pulled the top sheet from her bed and wrapped it in her arms. Upon her re-entrance into the living room, she saw Amethyst still standing just a few steps from the door, swaying back and forth on her heels. The silence was… awkward, to say the least.

Pulling some extra pillows from one end of the couch, Peridot constructed a modest sleeping arrangement. 

"Heh, well…" Amethyst said, "Thanks man. I appreciate this."

Peridot shrugged. "Not a big deal."

She walked past Amethyst again, this time into the kitchen. As she began cleaning up the leftovers, Peridot heard Amethyst kick of her boots – she would have to move those – and do whatever it was she was doing with her covers. 

A yawn escaped from Peridot's throat. It really had been a long day, Amethyst's surprise appurtenance elongating it further. Peridot rubbed her eyes, jolting them to stay open a few minutes longer. She shuffled past Amethyst – picked up her boots and placed them in the hall with her own small collection of foot wear. With her chores completed, she made her way to the washroom.

Upon completing her Toiletries, Peridot looked at herself in the mirror.

Something about her was... different. She turned her head about, trying to place it, but her tired eyes yielded no answers. She shrugged it off – probably nothing.

As she stepped through the doorway to her room, Amethyst's raspy voice rose from the living room across from her.

"Uh… thanks, Peridot. Really. You have no idea how much this means to me."

"I'm not about to just leave you out on the street," said Peridot, "besides, like I said – no big deal." The slightest tug of a tired smile appeared on her lips.

Amethyst smiled back, and Peridot turned to the comfort of her bed. Throwing off her over shirt, she flopped onto the bed and wrapped herself in her singular sheet.

Despite the unusual guest in her living room, Peridot found it very easy to drift to sleep.


End file.
